The Other Fish in the Sea (Grab Your Pole, #2) Read online

  “Yeah, I was holding my breath on that one, and I almost blurted out that you’re a shark now too when Pete called Derek one… Okay, I’ll tell them, but I’m not prepared to do it today and I need to break-up with Keith first too…”

  “I’ll make you a deal then, I’ll change the song after you tell ‘em.”

  “Is that bribery?”

  “No, it’s incentive.”

  “What are you gonna change it to? Knowing you, it’s probably worse than the Titanic one, like ‘Dirty Little Secret’ or something, so mayb—”

  “I actually did consider that one last night (figures), but nope. And don’t try to get outta this, anyone who has a problem with us can fuck off. Plus it’s a good song, you’ll like it.”

  “What is it?”

  “Do you know Jane’s Addiction?”

  “A little…” All I can think of is “Been Caught Stealing” and I don’t think I’d like that much more than “My Heart Will Go On.”

  “Okay, well it’s a song called ‘Classic Girl’…here, listen to it. I’m gonna use the end of it…”

  He played it for me and he’s so right…I love it. In fact, I’m tearing up again. Jeez, he really knows how to tug on my heartstrings. It’s so weird that it would be a guy who really doesn’t give a shit about anyone or anything who would make me feel so wanted. Not wanted as in physically desired, although he definitely does that, but wanted for just me, you know?

  “You’re crying again?”

  “Yeah, I really like it.”

  “Good, but you can’t have it until you get rid of him and tell everyone about me.”

  “Deal. So, umm, do you wanna…?”

  “Hell yeah, but we’re not gonna.”

  “What? Why not?” That was our original purpose for coming out here after all!

  “Yeah, see? I knew you’d go off and screw your boyfriend…I’ve turned you into a fuckin’ horn-dog…so here’s the deal, we’re not having sex again until you tell him to fuck off and you’re mine.” He’s totally making fun of me and kissing my neck at the same time. Giggle.

  “More incentive?”

  “No, good old fashion, goddamned bribery.”

  Brandon’s “bribery” was so effective that once we got back to camp and I had to watch him pull away and leave me with tears in my eyes, I gathered my friends before we took off too and did what I had to do, thinking to myself, well, let’s just get it over with…fast, like ripping a band-aid off.

  “Okay, so umm…I’ve been cheating on Keith with Brandon since Thursday and I know how you all feel about cheating, but I was gonna break-up with Keith anyway and as soon as I do, Brandon and I are gonna be together for real, and I hope this won’t make you think really badly about me, but what’s done is done and I’m just trying to be honest now. So that’s it.”

  “I already knew,” Tristan said with a wink and a smug grin. Jesus, he’s worse than Kate.

  “Me too,” Kate, Jeff, Jillian, and Pete said at the same time. You know, like, holy shit!

  “I did too, but not until last night when I came back to the tent and you weren’t there. I checked the bathroom and then went and told Tristan I couldn’t find you and he suggested I check Brandon’s tent.” And that was Camie…

  “Wh—how’d you all know?!”

  “I know everything,” Jillian said expressionless. Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me.

  “I saw you guys kissing when I was out riding yesterday,” Pete informed me with a shrug of his shoulders. “And actually, I wasn’t calling Derek a shark last night, I was calling Brandon one to see how he’d react.”

  “Wh—how’d he react?” I totally missed it! Brandon was sitting next to Derek and I was looking at them, but I never saw Brandon do anything telling!

  “He covered his smirk by taking a drink and then he looked at Derek. It was subtle but it was enough.”

  “Yeah, I saw that…and I had my suspicions earlier, but I totally knew for sure something was up with you guys when you hesitated on drinking when Bridget asked if anyone had ever made-out with someone in the tent who wasn’t their significant other and Tristan covered your ass for you. I mean, kissing after a date doesn’t count as making out and we all know that’s all you and he ever did, and then you were literally holding your breath when Brandon almost answered the most daring place he’d had sex. By the way, I want details on that later,” Kate said with a giggle.

  “Yeah, that confirmed it for me too, but what originally had me thinking was how he looked at you when Jeremy wanted to play spin the bottle Friday night.” Leave it to Jeff to pick up on the jealousy…he’s been riding Tristan about his for a month. “I mean did you guys see his face last night when I asked Melissa who her first kiss was with and if she liked it? Hilarious!”

  “Yeah, I thought steam was gonna come outta his ears when I told everyone how I found her and MaryAnn passed out naked… And all that shit was kind of a big give away, but I knew before any of that. What did it for me was seeing your guilt which showed up precisely at the same time Jeff prefaced his story Thursday night.”

  “Huh?”

  “Well, when Jeff mentioned enticing nude photography, you took one look at Brandon and then pounded that drink he made you, and since I lived for a week staring guilt in the face and know a little something about it, I figured more than a just photo shoot went down. Feels good to come clean, doesn’t it?” Yeah it does. It really, really does.

  “Yeah but, holy shit, you guys…was anyone gonna say anything to me about it?”

  “I would’ve if you didn’t fess up today or tomorrow…I wouldn’t let you live through what I went through, even though the circumstances are a little different. Guilt is guilt, and it’ll eat you alive if you let it.”

  “Thanks, Tristan. I kind of forgot about what that whole thing did to you, and you’re right, it was eating at me. The cheating part I mean, not the pictures he took for me...those I love.”

  “By the way, you’re welcome,” Tristan said.

  “Well I just said thanks…”

  “I know, but I covered your ass with the have you ever posed for non-baby naked pictures question too.”

  “You were lying about that?!” I asked him. Because you know…it is Tristan.

  “No, but I wasn’t gonna admit to something if I knew I could get away with the lie…and I only owned up to that one because you hesitated again and people noticed. I distracted them with my admission like that because I just thought it would be wise to keep that whole thing between you and your photographer for the time being, you know what I mean?”

  “Yeah, especially considering the untrustworthy mixed company,” Camie said and nodded in agreement.

  “But they’re gone so now can we do a side-by-side comparison?” Jeff asked me and laughed. Really, he just can’t help himself.

  “No way! Those are for my eyes only, you pig. And watch who you tease me about it around…Tristan’s right, I don’t want the world finding out about that.”

  “Duh,” all the guys said at once.

  And no, I’m not gonna mention that Brandon has one of his own. The curiosity would get the better of one of them and it would be too easy for them to sneak a peek. Brandon showed me the one he took with his phone and aside from a little bare skin that gives the impression I’m naked, it’s harmless and I can live with him having it. It’s just that when he was trying to get me to produce the same expression on my grandma’s face, he told me to think of wanting something out of reach…something I couldn’t have but desperately wanted. And I did. It was him. But because of that, all the pictures regardless of the nudity are very personal and intimate, which I want to keep between Brandon and me.

  “I at least want details on how that happened though, okay?” Kate asked and gave me a big “pleeease?” smile.

  “So, um, are we all cool then? You guys are okay with having a bad person as a friend?”

  “Melissa, you’re not a bad person. You didn’t do it to be vindic
tive or mean. You told me over a week ago you were thinking of breaking up with Keith, for a good reason too, and you just fell for another guy before you did it. I know you, if Keith had been around you would’ve broken up with him before you got involved with Brandon, so really all you did was do things a little out of order.”

  “Huh… Okay well, speaking of that…I gotta make a call.”

  I called Keith right then and there with my friends standing around me to lend their support. It was hard and I cried, and maybe the phone isn’t the best way to break-up with someone but surprisingly, Keith said he knew it was coming. I told him an annotated version of the truth by admitting to meeting someone else, but not that I had sex with the guy…that’s really none of his business. He was kind of pissed at first, but then took some of the blame in the way of saying that pressuring me about sex was what basically threw me into another guy’s arms so to speak, and he’s totally right on that point. I still shouldn’t have cheated on him, though. Happily, our breakup, for as bad as it could’ve been, was amicable and he doesn’t hate me or, like my amazingly great friends, think I’m a bad person either.

  Now there’s only one thing left for me to do…let my bad-boy-hottie know he can sleep.

  Me: hey hotness.

  Brandon: whats up sexy?

  Me: change my ringtone.

  Brandon: u my girl?

  Me: ya im your girl.

  Brandon: hm address plz.

  I gave him my address, although I’m not sure why he’s asking for it. He’s not really a send his girlfriend flowers kinda guy, you know?

  Brandon: c u 2nite rose. (Oh. Rose was the heroine in Titanic.)

  Me: giggle.

  12.

  Advanced Planning & A Secret Santa

  You would think after having essentially spent all of the last ninety-six hours and most of today at school together that my friends and I would maybe like a little alone time but, nope, that’s not how we work. My mom was so completely worn out after our desert trip that Jeff offered to come over Monday after school and bar-b-q for us. Well, it wasn’t so much an offer as it was him insisting but whatever. It was a nice thing to do and was very much appreciated by my parents.

  Jeff, Tristan, and I spent over two hours grocery shopping after school for the dinner fixin’s and to restock my mom’s kitchen. After the last week, I swear, it was like what Old Mother Hubbard’s kitchen must have looked like; we had NO food. We’d just gotten back to my house and as we loaded up our arms with grocery bags, we started talking and laughing about how Brandon had shown up at lunch today to kidnap Melissa. And it was a kidnapping. She totally had no idea he was coming. He found her at the stage, said, “Hi Sexy,” and then he picked her up, walked away with her, and because we all couldn’t stand it, we followed them and saw him plunk her down on the back of his motorcycle, stick a helmet on her head and then he took off with her. Yeah, Keith saw the whole thing too and his face upon seeing the guy Melissa ditched him for was uh…well, let’s just say he wasn’t happy. I think he considered picking a fight with Brandon, but he appeared a little intimidated by Brandon’s extremely cavalier attitude. I can’t really blame him, though. I’m sure Brandon wouldn’t have given Keith the opportunity to even get a punch in. I mean I don’t know that for a fact, it’s just a gut feeling. I just think Brandon’s not the kind of guy you really want to intentionally pick a fight with, you know?

  Anyway, the three of us were walking up the driveway of my house when we noticed Pete and my sister, or rather, their weighty expressions.

  “We got the groceries, you guys, they’re in Mom and Dad’s room,” Jillian said somberly, getting up from the porch swing and indicating Kate’s car on the street.

  With Jeff in the lead, the three of us walked in and were headed towards the far end of the hallway upstairs when we heard the faint sound of my mom’s “Comfort Voice.” That’s what I call it when she’s trying to reassure and console. Tristan and I shared a look and slowly approached my parents’ room to see Kate curled up on the bed with her head in my mom’s lap. She was crying.

  Jeff fairly flew to her and pulled her into his arms. “Katy?! Oh God, please tell me i—”

  “My parents are getting a divorce.” Her voice was flat, like she just didn’t have it in her to give the words any emphasis whatsoever. The only way you could tell she cared one way or the other was from the silent cascade of tears flowing down her cheeks.

  Jeff let go of the breath he was holding almost like he was relieved, but his voice held sincere empathy when he spoke. “Oh shit, Katy, I’m so sorry…do you wanna tell me what happened?”

  She wiped at her eyes with a tissue and took a deep breath before launching into the tale of what she learned when she came home from school this afternoon.

  “I thought it was so weird, you know, when I got home last night and no one was home and then this morning when my dad wasn’t at the table reading the paper and having his pre-commute coffee like he always does and my mom seemed so…guarded. I mean, she barely said three words to me before she left for the office early. Anyway, so I walk in the house after school and see a couple of suitcases and a bunch of moving boxes everywhere, and then I found my dad in his study cheerfully packing up all his books and stuff. He was actually fucking whistling to himself like one the goddamned seven dwarfs!”

  It was then that I glanced at my mom’s face. She was completely unfazed by Kate’s swearing. In fact, when Kate paused and turned to her, she automatically handed Kate another tissue, like she was one of us. In that moment, you would’ve never known my mom was a mom. She was a friend. Like she’d temporarily stepped in for me when Kate needed someone to cry and vent to. I mean I know she defended Brandon and everything, but seriously, how utterly magnificent is my mom?

  “When I asked him what the hell was going on, he just said, ‘Katelyn, your mother and I are getting divorced,’ and that was it. I mean he just went back to his whistling and packing and left me standing there with my fucking mouth hanging open.”

  “Babe, where was your mom?”

  “I’m getting to that… So I went in search of her, right? And found her in their room, stone faced, shoving the contents of his nightstand and the remainder of his clothes and crap in some boxe—”

  “Remainder?”

  “Yeah, well, come to find out, he’d already taken most of his clothes over the weekend to the condo he’s had for nineteen fucking years!”

  “WHAT?!” Jeff, Tristan and I all shouted our incredulousness together.

  “Uh-huh…unbeknownst to her and his kid, he’s been cheating on my mom almost their entire fucking marriage! I’m so fucking pissed at him, I can barely see straight!”

  And our reactions to this news were;

  Jeff: “That fucking son of a bitch!”

  Tristan: “Holy shit!”

  Me: crickets… Honestly, I had nothin’.

  Kate just looked at us like she was asking, “I know! Can you believe this shit?” Then, after taking another cleansing breath and wiping her eyes again, she turned her face to Jeff and said softly, “Babe, I’m fuckin’ starving, feed me.”

  He smoothed her hair from her face before first kissing her forehead and then her lips. “You got it,” he said in a voice so full of loving intimacy that they could’ve been the only two people in the world, let alone the room.

  Tristan followed Jeff out and it wasn’t that I got the feeling that Kate wanted to be alone or anything, but she sort of groaned when she heard Melissa arrive. So, thinking she probably didn’t want to go through her story yet another time, I went downstairs to play hostess and left Kate in my mom’s bed and her more than capable hands. About a half an hour later, Kate was compelled to join us in the backyard by the mouthwatering smell of steak being grilled and mushrooms being sautéed in butter and garlic.

  No one said a word about her puffy eyes and the reason for them; instead, we made some “Gay Pete” jokes while laughing at Jillian’s Thanksgiving video compil
ation and played a game of cards to see who would do the dishes.

  Dinner was delicious and I did the dishes.

  The next day Tristan’s parents were going to be home from Italy so wanting to see them and fill them in on the upheaval in their friends’ lives; he only dropped me off after school. Thankfully, I didn’t need his help with my math homework. Now this will sound weird, but I’m sure you’ll understand in a minute why I was doubly thankful that he didn’t stick around when my mom called me into her room for a chat.

  I passed Jill in the hallway as she was headed for her room having just come from our parents’. She didn’t say anything, and although the look on her face wasn’t exactly grim, it was enough to sort of give me a foreboding feeling.

  “Hi honey, come sit down with me…I want to talk about some things with you,” My mom said pleasantly, yet determined.

  If I said my heart wasn’t a lump in my throat as I crawled onto her bed to sit next to her, I would be surprised if God didn’t hurl a lightning bolt at me for lying.

  She took my hand and then with a warm smile, she gave it a squeeze and said, “I’m not quite sure how to tell you this so I’m just going to come out with it… (Seriously, I think I’m having a full-blown panic attack.) Starting in January, Jillian will be going to school with you.”

  I blinked in confusion. That was so not what I was expecting.

  Since I was just sitting there staring at her with what I’m sure was a look that a dog might give you when you’re speaking English to it and it’s hearing “Blah, blah, blah…,” my mom went on. “Her school contacted me yesterday and informed me that they really don’t have the means to keep up with her, so she’ll begin as a freshman when second semester starts. Your father and I were hoping to give you at least one year on your own, but it just can’t be helped. I hope you understand.”

  “I, uh—I…yeah…I totally understand! Actually, I’m way cool with that.” I have no problem with not having a year without my sister, but now I’m wondering why Jill didn’t look thrilled. I mean maybe she doesn’t want to leave her friends or something, which I would totally get if it were me, but I would think she’d be doing cartwheels at the idea of not being as bored everyday in class, which she’s told me on more than one occasion is the case.